Google’s cloud computing push in Seattle

I just finished reading BusinessWeek’s Dec. 24 cover story on Google’s cloud computing effort. The story confirmed just how important the Seattle area and — more specifically the University of Washington — is to the search giant’s strategy.

Former UW computer science student Christophe Bisciglia — who now leads Google’s cloud computing initiative — appears on the cover looking up at some clouds and UW computer science professor Ed Lazowska also makes an appearance.

In fact, much of the story is set in Seattle where Bisciglia created the Google 101 course that formed the basis of the company’s cloud computing idea.

Reporter Stephen Baker explains the concept this way:

A move towards clouds signals a fundamental shift in how we handle information. At the most basic level, it’s the computing equivalent of the evolution in electricity a century ago when farms and businesses shut down their own generators and bought power instead from efficient industrial utilities. Google executives had long envisioned and prepared for this change. Cloud computing, with Google’s machinery at the very center, fit neatly into the company’s grand vision, established a decade ago by founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page: “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible.” Bisciglia’s idea opened a pathway toward this future.

The story does not mention that the new research and development center in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood — chosen in part because of its proximity to the UW — will specialize on technologies to make Google’s massive data centers operate more efficiently.

The office is led by UW professor Brian Bershad, who made the leap to Google earlier this fall.